GLOSS Newsletter

Here we are going into YEAR TWO!!

A bit late on the newsletter this month because we wanted to wait and announce YEAR TWO'S CROWDFUNDER!! We're a year in and it's amazing looking back and reflecting on all of the people who've passed through the library whether as members, facilitators, artists or curious visitors. Thank you so much for your support, however it's been given - we're excited for what's to come with the year ahead!

GLOSS receives no core regular funding and so we rely on ticket sales and memberships to keep our doors open, our synths blooping and our staff paid. We've loads of ways you can support via the Crowdfunder so please share and buy all of your friends and family GLOSS related gifts for Christmas :)

More info below!

Year Two!

We're one!

Since opening for regular public access in autumn 2025, we've welcomed complete beginners, experienced musicians and everyone in between. We've established weekly Open Sessions, developed a wide-ranging programme of workshops and events, and started to build a community around the library.

As we move into our second year (!) we're opening our memberships again to help support the second year of GLOSS.

We're aiming to raise £10,000 from supporters, which will be matched with another £10,000 from Creative Scotland through Crowdmatch.

This funding will help us pay our staff, contribute to rent, bills and instrument maintenance, sustain affordable access to the library and develop new opportunities for people to make, learn and share music together.

Membership is one of the most important ways to support GLOSS. It helps sustain the library while giving you affordable access to the collection and reduced prices across our programme.

We're offering three annual membership levels as we did last year and you can find more information about pricing on the Crowdfunder.

You can also Pass on a Membership, helping us provide a full year's membership free of charge to somebody who otherwise wouldn't be able to afford one.

And if membership isn't for you, there are other ways to support us, including GLOSS T-shirts (new and old designs), limited prints and vouchers for Open Sessions, workshops and events.

Every contribution helps us get closer to our target so please share, get stuff for yourself and all your pals!

CROWDFUNDER!

We've had a huge first year!

Since first opening our doors this time last year and with the support of our first Crowdmatch campaign, we opened GLOSS for regular public access and built a year-round programme around the library.

Since then we’ve launched weekly Open Sessions, grown our membership and team, and welcomed hundreds of visits from Glasgow and from much further afield.

We’ve programmed more than 70 workshops, club sessions and events, from synthesis and music production to sound art, composition and improvisation.

Working with Sonica, Counterflows, Radiophrenia and Thinking Culture, we’ve hosted artists including Suzanne Ciani, Thomas Ankersmit, Slowfoam, Barker, Cole Pulice and Bitchin Bajas. Our Quadraphonicsseries, with Luukke and Sonia Killman, has explored four-channel sound and spatial listening. We’ve also created opportunities for Glasgow artists to perform and exchange ideas with visiting artists, working with Somewhere Press, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra.

Education is central to what we do and a core piece of what we want to continue to focus on. Projects like ITEM (Introduction to Electronic Music), and FSOS (Future Sounds of Strathclyde) have helped people build skills and confidence through hands-on learning, and we’re now seeking support to run funded projects like these again. With Counterflows, A Sound Map of the River Clyde took the library beyond its walls by lending field-recording equipment free and inviting people to contribute sounds from across the river.

Regular groups are building communities of their own: Ableton Club, Synth Club (with Signal Sounds) and our new Dungeon Synth sessions. Keep an eye out for more clubs with the next year!

As one member put it, GLOSS is “a source of inspiration and never just a static bank of tools to borrow.”

Year 2:

We'll continue looking after, expanding and developing the collection, while bringing artists, workshops, performances and ideas into the space.

Community has been fundamental to GLOSS from the beginning. In Year 2, we want to build on that foundation, creating more opportunities for people to learn from one another, share their work and contribute to the musical culture around the library.

In Year 2, we'll expand our programme of clubs and peer-to-peer learning sessions, introducing new groups shaped by the interests and practices of the people using GLOSS.

There are thousands of tutorials online that can show you how to programme a synthesiser or whatever else - We want GLOSS to be somewhere to explore the things that are harder to learn from a tutorial.

CROWDFUNDER!

COMING UP OVER THE NEXT MONTH!

Introduction to Synthesis:

The next Introduction to Synthesis dates in the diary - tomorrow night is 10th November. These relaxed and friendly sessions offer a hands-on introduction to creating, sculpting and conjuring synthesized sound using hardware synths.

Great for new library members or folk looking to synthesise sounds for the first time.

Book here

Communal Leisure presents:

4th World Magazine, Heather Leigh, Dip Friso and Lugh.

BYOB!

4th World Magazine (aka Spencer Clark) Operating under various guises for decades—including his foundational work in The Skaters with James Ferraro —US-born artist Spencer Clark brings his 4th World Magazine universe to life.

With a rare combination of sensitivity and strength, Leigh’s steel mainlines sanctified slide guitar and deforms it using hypnotic tone-implosions, juggling walls of bleeding amp tone with choral vocal constructs and wrenching single note ascensions.

Tickets here.

Documenting the Invisible with George Finlay Ramsey:

Start with an object. An object that means something to you. Bring it to the room. Together we will look at the object, listen to it, touch it. Then we will look with the camera, listen with the microphones. What is it saying? Emanating? What can film see that we cannot see with our eyes? What can the microphone hear that we cannot hear?

A 2 part workshop with George Finlay Ramsey and Tom Fisher. More info here.